Edison may request San Onofre license review

Southern California Edison says it will consider making a voluntary request for a formal amendment to its operating license, a move meant to help clear the way for restart of one of two idled reactors at the San Onofre nuclear plant.

Environmental activists have been seeking such an amendment for months.

The utility giant says it will meet with Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials to discuss the issue, and that the meeting will be open to the public. A date has not been set.

Edison has contended that such an amendment is unnecessary. But in a statement released Friday, the company said it hopes to avoid procedural delays that would keep the Unit 2 reactor offline during the coming summer, when high heat can result in heavy electricity use.

"We want to do every responsible thing we can do to get Unit 2 up and running safely before the summer heat hits our region," Southern California Edison President Ron Litzinger is quoted in the statement as saying.

Friends of the Earth, an activist group that has requested that the NRC conduct a license amendment hearing on the restart proposal, said in its own statement that Edison's request still represents an attempt to "get around" a more extensive license-amendment process.

If Edison decides to request a license-amendment proceeding, the company also will submit a "No Significant Hazards Consideration" analysis to NRC – in essence, an effort to show that the license amendment does not include significant safety risks.

"If the NRC grants the request under those conditions, the public would yet again be denied their lawful right to full and meaningful participation in the process," the Friends of the Earth statement said.

The surprise announcement came at the start of a meeting in Maryland of the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, which is considering aspects of the license amendment issue.

Separately, the NRC is evaluating a request by Edison to restart Unit 2 at 70 percent power. That is expected to eliminate vibrations believed to have caused unexpected wear among thousands of metal tubes inside the nuclear plant's four steam generators, two for each reactor.

The problems were discovered after a small leak of radioactive gas prompted the shutdown of the Unit 3 reactor on Jan. 31, 2012. Unit 2 had been taken offline for routine maintenance earlier that month.

Inspections showed unexpected tube wear in all four steam generators, with more extensive wear in Unit 3.

NRC is now reviewing an Edison document known as an "operational assessment," which asserts that Unit 2 could be run safely at full power for as long as 11 months – even though Edison intends to run it at 70 percent power for five months, then shut it down again for further tube inspections.

NRC has said a showing of safe, full-power operation is necessary even if Edison plans to reach only 70 percent power.

But Edison spokeswoman Jennifer Manfre said going the license amendment route could mean fewer delays than might be involved with the operational assessment review.

"We still feel (a license amendment) is not required," Manfre said. And while the company is confident its operational assessment shows it can run at 100 percent power safely, "we know that the NRC will need to take time to evaluate that. So this is another path."